Sky Italia
Sky Italia is an Italian digital satellite television platform owned by Sky plc. It is similar in many ways to Sky in the United Kingdom and Sky Ireland in Ireland, which is partly owned by 21st Century Fox, and like that network it is a major sports broadcaster.
Pay TV services on Sky Italia are encrypted in NDS VideoGuard. The VideoGuard set-top boxes that have been provided since July 2010 are identical to the Sky+ HD boxes used in the UK. Pace, Amstrad and Thomson, all Digibox licensors, have been producing Sky Italia boxes (Sky Box, Sky HD, My Sky and My Sky HD) identical to their Sky Digital, Sky+ and Sky+ HD offerings, albeit with the potential removal of the second card slot and UHF modulator.
History
Sky Italia was founded in July 2003 by the merger of TELE+ and Stream TV. Since July 2010 Sky Italia has been giving the 'Sky Digital Key' and the My Sky HD box for free to every new customer (since July 2009 HD channels have been available with no extra cost to all Sky Italia subscribers). The 'Sky Digital Key' is a USB device which has to be connected to the 'My Sky HD' box and to the aerial cable, allowing the customer to receive every DTT SD and HD free channel on the Sky HD or My Sky HD box.
